He set aside the menu. "Got that right," he said in a tone that suggested he wasn't only talking about the view.
I studied him over the rim of my champagne class. He looked perfectly at ease in his expensive clothes and luxurious surroundings. From what I'd read, his life had changed an awful lot in a relatively short time. How long had it taken him to get used to the good life?
Maybe he still wasn't used to it.
Was he faking it? I faked it pretty good myself. Was I faking it now in my secondhand dress and cheap shoes? No, I decided. I wasn't. Tonight, for whatever reason, I didn't feel like an imposter. I felt like just a girl on a date with a beautiful guy in a beautiful place.
When one of the women got up and walked slowly past our table, her hips swaying as she gave Lawton a long, lingering look, I changed my mind. Turns out, I was the jealous type. Oh yeah, and she was a bimbo. Definitely.
But her effort was for nothing. Lawton's gaze rested firmly on me as he held my hand across the table.
The view below us was undeniably spectacular. It wasn't just of the Detroit cityscape, which looked a whole lot better from this vantage point, but also of the bridge to Canada, where the city lights of Windsor reflected before us on the Detroit River.
But honestly, the thing that really took my breath away was Lawton. I was falling for him. Falling for him hard. Sometimes, I thought he felt the same way, but then I'd remember all those girls. They had fought over him. And not just with words.
Had he madethemfeel special the way he made me feel special? It would be hard to resist something like that, especially packaged with his amazing looks and undeniable success.
When we left, hand-in-hand after Lawton paid the bill, I could barely remember what I'd ordered, or how it tasted.
But I did remember the feel of his hand in mine as we rode the glass elevator down, seeing the ground get closer and closer every second, and the look in his eyes when he told me he'd waited too long to show me off.
I'd laughed. "Show me off? For who?"
"For me." He lowered his voice. "Because I gotta tell you, the thought of anyone else looking at you –" He shook his head. "Not good."
I rolled my eyes. "Oh please, the way all those women looked at you in there, I don't thinkyou'rethe one who's got to worry."
He grinned. "You worry?"
"No," I mumbled, looking down at my shoes. Now that I studied them in these surroundings, they really did look cheap. I looked up and met Lawton's gaze. "Well, not really."
"Trust me," he said, leaning in close. "You don’t have anything to worry about. Besides, I didn't see any other women in there."
"Yeah, right."
"But Ididsee a lot of guys checking you out." His voice was quiet. "Lucky all they did was look."
"Oh please," I said. "No one was looking at me."
"You just keep right on thinking that," he said. "Come to think of it, it's probably a good thing."
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"I mean," he said, meeting my gaze, "that if you don't notice them looking, odds are, you won't be giving them any looks back." And then he kissed me, a long, lingering kiss that made me nearly as breathless as the downward motion of the elevator.
Chapter 46
As the night progressed, his decision to take a limo made more and more sense. We didn't have to stumble through some parking garage, looking for our car. We didn't have to worry about how much we drank, which was considerable, or which road to turn on as we navigated the city.
We went from dinner to a casino in Greektown, where he taught me how to play craps and blackjack, sometimes winning, sometimes losing, but always together, hand-in-hand, except when throwing the dice.
Around ten o'clock, we left Greektown and made our way to the same night club we'd passed on our way to dinner.
I'd already had way too much to drink, and my head was positively spinning.
When we pulled up, the line at the door was, if anything, even longer. People jostled each other in the chilly air as they stood under the long awning, waiting for someone inside to leave so they could get in.
I bit my lip, wishing I'd thought to bring a coat.
